This picturesque capital city of Belgium is also considered the de facto capital of the European Union and the headquarters of NATO. The city hosts both French and Flemish communities and languages; and is known for it’s food and beer scene, as well as its historical and architectural landmarks. There’s a lot going on here in this fairly small and very walkable city! We actually stayed here for 4 nights as a home base, spending 2 full days in Brussels plus 2 day trips to Bruges / Ghent and then Dinant / Luxembourg (I will share more about those day trips in separate posts). Come along with us as we explore Brussels in the spring!
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Here is a sample 2-day itinerary for Brussels, Belgium based on our Spring Break trip with young adults in March:
DAY 1: TRAVEL DAY, GRAND PLACE, AND FOOD TOUR
There are several options for getting to Brussels, depending on where you are coming from. You can fly in to Brussels International Airport (BRU), travel by train, or in our case by car. We were coming from Cologne, Germany which is just 2 hours away, so we hired a private car service through Daytrip. I’ve used this service before and it’s such a great find! It’s especially nice when you’re traveling with big suitcases and don’t want to lug them around the train stations and on the trains.
We stayed at NH Hotels Brussels City Center, which was in a great location just a few blocks from Grand Place, had nice clean rooms, and served a really nice breakfast each day. We paid a little extra for a larger room that had plenty of space for us to spread out. The only drawback was there was no restaurant or bar on site.
After getting checked in, we had a few hours free and decided to take in as many of the highlights of the city as we could. Stop at one of the local cafes for a sandwich and drink before heading toward the city center. Grand Place is an absolute must…dating back to the 15th century and a UNESCO World Heritage site, it is one of the most beautiful places (architecturally) that I’ve ever seen. There are some shops and cafes in the square, as well as Town Hall which you can buy tickets to tour.
From here, we walked toward the Brussels Stock Exchange building (the Bourse), as it’s supposed to be a really beautiful building that you can self-tour, along with museums, beer world, and a sky bar, but we could not find an entrance that appeared open that day!
Next, a trip to Brussels isn’t complete without finding the Manneken Pis statue and fountain. This bronze statue of a peeing boy was originally built in 1619, and legend has it that this young boy peed on a fuse that would’ve destroyed the city. There are stories of the statue being stolen (more than once), and he is often dressed up in various outfits throughout the year. In addition to the Manneken Pis, there is also Jeanneke Pis (a girl), and Zinneke Pis (a dog). It’s worth walking around to see all 3 as you explore the city…a scavenger hunt of sorts!
Next, we met up with our guide for this small group Walking Food Tour through Trip Advisor. There were just 5 of us total, plus our guide. Brussels is best known for its chocolate, fries, waffles, and beer…we hit the best that Belgium has to offer in all 4 categories on this 3-hour tour! Our guide was super informative in terms of history and culture, plus he gave us some great recommendations that we tried the next day. We also spent a good amount of time in Grand Place learning about all of the different buildings and architectural elements. Food tours are my favorite activity when visiting a new city, and this one was one of the best I’ve been part of.
DAY 2: ATOMIUM, GUEUZE TASTING, TRUFFLE MAKING, & A PUPPET BAR
For our second full day touring Brussels, we got outside of the main city center a bit more using the train, plus quite a bit of walking! We started by taking the train to Atomium, just outside of the center of Brussels. This unique feat of architecture was build for the World Exposition in 1957. It’s pretty cool to see and relatively inexpensive to tour, but the displays inside are just okay. If you have time, take a couple of hours to go tour it, but if you’re short on time I would skip this one.
Next, we ventured to Cantillon Brewery to tour the brewery and taste some Gueuze Beer. Our tour guide the night before had introduced us to Gueuze (made from Lambic), which is a sort-of sour, cider beer made only in Belgium. The brewery allows for a self-guided tour for a small fee that includes several tastings, and is open five days a week. It was a fun little tour and the tastings were great, but the brewery itself was not in a very nice part of town. It was close enough to walk back to the city center for our next stop, but we were pretty uncomfortable most of the way. Luckily it was the middle of the day!
After sampling some Gueuze and making our way back toward the city center, we stopped for lunch and then moved on to the next activity, which was a truffle making class. This was a 1.5 hour class and was just a small group of six of us plus the instructor. It was a last-minute add for us as the weather was kind of rainy this day and we were looking for something to do inside. Again, if you’re short on time I would skip this particular class. It was a fun activity, but the truffles weren’t that great.
Other alternatives for Day 2 are the BBP Brewery Tour, the Military Museum, the Royal Palace, or a Parliament Tour. All get decent reviews and are easy to access by train or by foot.
We finished Day 2 with dinner at one of the most affordable Michelin-starred restaurants in the world called Aux Armes de Bruxelles. It wasn’t that difficult to get a reservation either! The restaurant was bustling, service was amazing, and food was delicious. They even gave us a tour of the kitchen, which was an unexpected surprise. They are known for their mussels with fries…try these and the steak frites!
Other restaurants that I’d recommend in Brussels are Brasserie de Pre sale or Ricotta and Parmesan for delicious pasta, Bouillon Bruxelles known for their croquettes, and for a snack or drink with great outdoor people watching, try Le Cirio.
Finally, for a really unique experience, another recommendation from our tour guide was the Theatre Royal de Toone, a historic marionette puppet theater started in the 1830’s. There are occasional puppet shows (check their website for details), but they also have a bar where you can enjoy drinks and see the puppets, open Wednesday- Sunday 12PM-12AM. Such a cool place and worth a visit!
